If you’ve never used this feature earlier, here’s what it’s for: Public Folders enable (limited) collaboration and the exchange of information by allowing the creation of shared folders that collect and store email and other information.

Public Folders can also be used to manage calendar-based resources, such as conference rooms. Outlook Public Folders (or Shared Mailboxes) might be popular but they aren’t powerful. Hence people start searching for a public folder substitute.

Here’s a quick list of drawbacks you’ll encounter if trying to use these for boosting collaboration:

• You can’t see which email has been responded to (or see the response), which is terrible (for various reasons) in a collaborative scenario, there’s no way to funnel emails to users through keywords, which can lead to email fatigue.

• Outlook’s Public Folders have no support for tracking or analytics. So if you’re using this for customer service or sales, you have no way of tracking how soon your team responds to messages.

• Accessing Public Folders via email on your phone? You’ll have to stick to IMAP mail, which can be slow, and also prone to sync issues.

In a nutshell, Outlook Public Folders are an outdated, underpowered tool for today’s fast-paced world. Luckily, there is an alternative that gives you all the power, features, and usability you need for a smooth, collaboration-friendly workflow.